Hello All. I joined this forum back when I had only been quit for a short period. It's a great place for quitters to come for support and interaction with fellow quitters. I only posted a couple of check ins and found myself not having time in the mornings to stop by and make my daily pledge. But I did stay quit! I have just passed my 100 days recently and I am here to tell anyone that is having a hard time doing this, that if I can do it, anybody can!!
I started chewing sometime between the age of 11 and 13, I am 52 years old now (that's about 40 years of this addiction!). I chewed Skoal Original Fine Cut my entire life and when I made the decision to quit back in late January, I was chewing two cans a day consistently. I didn't plan it, and I didn't have any real reason to quit other than I came to a realization that at some point, a doctor would be telling me that I would either have to quit, or I would probably die from this crap! So I knew that I would eventually have to suffer the process of quitting and just decided to get it over with. So I came home from work one day and told my wife that I was quitting and I made a commitment to myself to not buy another can of chew when my last can ran out. I figured if I could make it through the first few hours, I would prove to myself that I wasn't going to die if I didn't feed my nicotine addiction. I made it through that first day alive!!!
So I am here to tell anyone trying to do this that it is a daily commitment to yourself, it is probably going to be one of the hardest things you'll ever put yourself through, and you will not be pleasant to be around at times. But.... like me, at some point in your life you will realize that you have no choice but to quit or die! So why wait?
Getting past the first week or two was the hardest part. And what has kept me going is first, the desire to not want to put myself or my family through those first few days ever again!
Second, and probably most importantly for me, was that as I drive by a mini-market every morning on my way to work with that urge to stop and by myself a can I just make myself keep right on going. Every time I get past that mini-market I celebrate another day of victory over that horrible habit that I have suffered though for the past 40 years!!! And that has been how I make my personal commitment each and every day!
So again, if I can do this, anybody can!
